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Lee calls for better Japan relations

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, left, and his wife, Kim Yoon-ok, are pictured at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1919 uprising for independence against Japanese colonial rule, in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

New South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called for better relations with former colonial ruler Japan yesterday, saying his nation should look to the future instead of dwelling too much on the past.

Lee's address, made at a ceremony marking Korea's 1919 uprising for independence, contrasted with speeches his predecessor Roh Moo-hyun gave on the holiday in recent years, in which he criticized Tokyo for not living up to its repeated apologies.

Lee's speech included no criticism of Japan and no demand for a new apology.

"South Korea and Japan should build a future-oriented relationship in a pragmatic attitude," Lee said in the nationally televised address. "We should never look away from the truth of history. However, we cannot give up on future relations, bound by the past forever."

On March 1, 1919, hundreds of thousands of Koreans rose up against Japan and demanded independence. Hundreds of people were killed or wounded. The uprising is commemorated in both Koreas, although the anniversary is not a national holiday in the North.

"South Korea and Japan should build a future-oriented relationship in a pragmatic attitude. We should never look away from the truth of history. However, we cannot give up on future relations, bound by the past forever."

Lee Myung-bak, South Korean president

Lee, who assumed office on Monday, has said since his December election that improving relations with the US and Japan would be one of his foreign policy priorities, saying ties with the two countries had frayed under his predecessor.

On the day of his inauguration, Lee held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and agreed to hold regular summits with Japan and consider reviving talks to tear down trade barriers between the two nations.

South Korea and Japan are key trade partners but have sparred over rows stemming largely from Japan's 1910 to 1945 colonial rule of Korea, including repeated visits by Japanese leaders to a war shrine that critics say glorifies the country's wartime atrocities.

Korea was liberated in 1945, at the end of World War II, and was then divided into two. Lee said the division is not only a matter between the two Koreas, but also the international community.

"We cannot resolve the South-North question with exclusive nationalism," he said. "We should view it as an internal issue, but at the same time as an international issue as well."

North Korea has long called for Seoul and Pyongyang to resolve the problems on the Korean peninsula alone, and the North's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper reiterated that sentiment yesterday in an editorial marking the uprising anniversary.

"We should never allow any foreign force to intervene" in efforts to unify the peninsula, it said in a report carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.

Lee, who took office with a promise to boost the economy, also emphasized that South Korea should be forward-looking and pragmatic amid stiff international competition.

"We have too many things to do to remain looking back," he said.
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